They Held
A Palaver With These Indians And Reproached The Ricara Chief, Who Was
Called Gray-Eyes, With Having Engaged In Hostilities With The Sioux,
Notwithstanding The Promises Made When The White Men Were Here Before.
To This Gray-Eyes Made An Animated Reply:
-
"He declared that the Ricaras were willing to follow the counsels
we had given them, but a few of their bad young men would not live
in peace, but had joined the Sioux and thus embroiled them with
the Mandans. These young men had, however, been driven out of the villages,
and as the Ricaras were now separated from the Sioux, who were a bad people
and the cause of all their misfortunes, they now desired to be at peace
with the Mandans, and would receive them with kindness and friendship.
Several of the chiefs, he said, were desirous of visiting their Great Father;
but as the chief who went to the United States last summer had not returned,
and they had some fears for his safety, on account of the Sioux, they did
not wish to leave home until they heard of him. With regard to himself,
he would continue with his nation, to see that they followed our advice.
. . . . . . . . .
"After smoking for some time, Captain Clark gave a small medal to
the Chayenne chief, and explained at the same time the meaning of it.
He seemed alarmed at this present, and sent for a robe and a quantity
of buffalo-meat, which he gave to Captain Clark, and requested him to take
back the medal; for he knew that all white people were `medicine,'
and was afraid of the medal, or of anything else which the white
people gave to the Indians. Captain Clark then repeated his intention
in giving the medal, which was the medicine his great father had
directed him to deliver to all chiefs who listened to his word and.
followed his counsels; and that as he [the chief] had done so,
the medal was given as a proof that we believed him sincere.
He now appeared satisfied and received the medal, in return for which
he gave double the quantity of buffalo-meat he had offered before.
He seemed now quite reconciled to the whites, and requested that some
traders might be sent among the Chayennes, who lived, he said, in a
country full of beaver, but did not understand well how to catch them,
and were discouraged from it by having no sale for them when caught.
Captain Clark promised that they should be soon supplied with goods
and taught the best mode of catching beaver.
"Big White, the chief of the Mandans, now addressed them at some length,
explaining the pacific intentions of his nation; the Chayennes
observed that both the Ricaras and Mandans seemed to be in fault;
but at the end of the council the Mandan chief was treated with
great civility, and the greatest harmony prevailed among them.
The great chief, however, informed us that none of the Ricaras could
be prevailed on to go with us till the return of the other chief;
and that the Chayennes were a wild people, afraid to go.
He invited Captain Clark to his house, and gave him two carrots
of tobacco, two beaver-skins, and a trencher of boiled corn and beans.
It is the custom of all the nations on the Missouri to offer to every
white man food and refreshment when he first enters their tents."
Resuming their voyage, the party reached Tyler's River, where they camped,
on the twenty-seventh of August.
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